From the desk of the Tiger Lily.
The more I read of this biography on General Douglas MacArthur, the more clearly I see just how embittered and envious his FDR-worshiping hypercritics are in projecting the ugly disfigurations of their own souls onto him. Yes, he was flawed, in the sense that the Saints of the early Church were flawed, because they were human. Yes, he was ambitious enough to aspire to the presidency, in the sense that any of the great Presidents sacrificed so much of their time and energies to guard and guide the country they loved against all enemies, foreign- and especially- domestic. None of this makes him the egotistical narcissist with suicidal tendencies that the loathsome, ignorant, faux-intellectual "author" so cavalierly ascribes to one of the greatest military leaders (and finest men) in American history.
The Filipinos, "simple" and "emotional" people though they were, had a greater understanding of (and identification with) the man than sneering East-coast elitists would ever have the capacity to comprehend.
"Robert Shaplen of the New Yorker saw an ancient Filipina, her face a mesh of deep creases, standing with her arms spread wide, an ecstatic smile on her lips, and an expression of utter joy in her eyes, as though unable to believe in her good fortune. An eight-year-old child clutching a parcel introduced herself to Romulo [MacArthur's aide] as Glory Godingka; she had a present for MacArthur, she said, and she wouldn't give it to anyone else. Romulo led her to the General, who opened the package and found within a box of cigars for him and a knitted handbag for Jean [MacArthur's wife]. Several weeks earlier MacArthur had read enviously that the people of Belgium had presented Field Marshal Montgomery with a jeweled saber. Now, his eyes filling, he said, 'Carlos, I would rather have this gift than Montgomery's sword.'"
American Caesar: Douglas MacArthur 1880-1964 by William Manchester
Remind you of anyone we know?
agtG
